.
Lights of Gatlinburg
.
Somewhere below me,
Someone is laughing—
Someone is having a beer or tea
And reclining under a slanted roof.
Somewhere down there,
In the valley—
Someone is fading in front of a TV
Or walking an artificially lit street
Looking for something or someone,
Soul-searching on zombied,
Touristed streets long past hiker-midnight,
Taking advantage
Of the young,
If not youthful night.
Many people are making love,
I am sure,
‘Neath those tiny bulbs,
So far by feet,
So close by night—
Flittering like false gems
On costume jewelry.
They count like stars,
A cloudy Milky Way
Across Tennessee—the universe below
Mimicking the universe above,
Clinging to the heels
Of us ridgewalkers like satellites in orbit,
Searching for a signal
In the wind from somewhere.
.
Greg Scheiber is currently pursuing his MFA in poetry at Eastern Washington University. His work has previously appeared in Poetry Quarterly, Oddball, and Nomadic Journal.
North of Oxford 